It's summer. Time to find a good book for the beach. Thankfully, we're recommending ones with lots of pictures.
Reviews by David K.
Uniforms unite people in a common cause and strip away individual differences that may detract from a mutual goal. There are jobs to be done, wars to be fought, maladies to be cured -- and there is a uniform required for each of these functions. But to the queer male a uniform often represents an erotic element that, from childhood forward, has informed and molded the very nature of their sexual desire. What epitomizes masculinity more than a uniform?
Ask a gay male to conjure his favorite sexual fantasy and inevitably a uniformed figure is involved. Cops, soldiers, cowboys, matadors, firemen, wrestlers, doctors, bus drivers, boxers, gladiators...should I continue? (I hope not, I'm pushing enough wood here to damage my keyboard.) In this elegant yet whimsical (and very sexy book), editor David Sprigle has compiled dozens of photographs of men in various displays of uniformed dress (or undress). Just about every imaginable ensemble is presented here, from that old faded picture of your grandfather's military stint, to the lurid, Technicolor zeal of a porn star slipping out of the costume department's latest investment.
Inner Circle members click here for the hardcore compainion pic gallery that compliments each book reviewed.
above photograph: Johan Larsen - Lonely Beach by Mel Roberts from the book Uniforms. Pub. Fotofactory Press © 2000
When I first came upon this book I let out a small groan: "Please, not another book of Bob Paris and his lover lolling around in the desert displaying their perfectly buffed and bulging body parts." How wrong I was. I've spent hours with this collection of photographs, reveling in the transcendental quality that infuses just about every tableaux in this 168-page volume. Arts photographer Arthur Press not only loves men, but he revels in the mystery of his species and takes aim with his camera to try and reveal, in as many ages, types, moods and styles possible -- the core of the masculine spirit.
Male of the Species opens with early portraits of boys and adolescent youth and then zig zags through men of various cultures and ages. Particularly engaging are Tress's portraits of older men, a rarity amidst the glut of queer coffee table books that have every wrinkle and waddle of the models airbrushed into oblivion.
Tress presents men from all walks of life and in many different roles. Hom fatale, testosterone-driven teens, wizened explorers and sages. He has described his photography as "slightly surrealistic with elements of humor and anxiety." And this is true. Many of his fabricated settings make a strong push towards the absurd or paradoxical; but more intimidating, and perhaps anxious, are the images that seem to have lept fully formed from the collective masculine's unconscious: the naked bodies that struggle to free themselves from the cogs and levers of heavy machinery or the luxuriant nudes that are contoured against gigantic industrial tires. These pictures spoke volumes to me about the masculine impulse and how it has designed and built the physical world that we live in.
What I appreciate most about Tress's photographs is his spirit of adventure, his playfulness, his willingness to depict that anxiety that he speaks of. Masculinity, especially for gay males, is often a disturbing riddle. How do we tap into the heart of the masculine realm when we are equally immersed (and so strongly at that) in the feminine.
Tess doesn't answer this question directly, but does a brilliant and spellbinding job of honoring the dichotomy with his photographs. And just that simple fact helps us breathe a sigh of relief.
Photographers of the nude body often depend too much on the obvious and revealed to convey the erotic power of their subject. But if you're like me you like a little bit of shadow, mystery or maybe even (god forbid) some clothing to stir your voyeuristic eye into reverie. Stealing a glimpse, grabbing a peek, waiting for a flash of flesh amidst the familiar lines and curves of the semi-nude human form is all part of the fun, the anticipation being just as important as what is eventually witnessed.
Photographer David Sprigel's latest collection of photographs celebrates this fine line between what is revealed and what is hidden. He does this by employing a plastic Poloraid camera to capture blurry, wiggly "snaps" of his models in static poses or moments of frenetic movement and contact. Most of his subjects are faceless, which intensifies the focus on blurred body parts and genitals. In many ways these electric, pulsating pictures are a visual essay about our instant culture. This is a new photographic aesthetic that arrives from the intersection of cheap consumer technology and art. And yet, what a beautiful nexus: Sprigle's color pallet seems based in oil paint rather than photographic grain. And so each image glows and feels warm -- oddly antique but very present and alive. These are the pictures Andy Warhol might have taken if he lived in Venice Beach California and was a nudist.
Male Bonding Vol. 2
I'd have killed for a book like this when I was a queer teenager and the closest thing I could find depicting two or more men together (in vulnerable states of undress) was the underwear section of our dog-eared Sears catalog. This is the second volume in FotoFactory's stunning homage to the furtive roots of male erotic photography. And like the first volume, the editors have compiled another wonderfully eclectic collection of images. From the tender embrace of a shared afternoon nap to the dark power struggles within the BDSM culture, no twosome is left unexplored.
